Usable, But Dim, Photo Of USA 281

#1

It is possible to make slow progess! The skies cleared and I got a good, but dim, trail as USA 281 (Future Imagery Architecture Radar satellite) goes overhead. It is about 1/3 of the way up from the bottom and 1/3 of the way in from the left side. The trail is not bright but the image resolves in Astrometry.net - I will submit observations tomorrow. One thing that I have learned is to question EVERYTHING - the camera was set for a 10 second exposure but apparently this is 6.5 seconds??

In the center of the image is the star Deneb and the trail is below that to the left.

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#2

Awesome!! Great to see, @CharlesHouston. We appreciate these updates you’ve been posting.

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#3

I did submit two observations for USA 281 (object 43145) today - I hope I am getting closer to submitting usable and accurate observations. The last two that I sent to Mike McCants (on a different object) were good on cross track and the first was good on time. The second was further off.

I figured out that, even on my Nikon, a “ten second” exposure could be 6.5 seconds in duration! So on the first ones I assumed a longer duration.

I’ll see what TruSat and McCants say about these observations - in any case I need to work to get a better workflow. These take a lot of time and trips to several applications and web pages to get a few points.

Charles

#4

@CharlesHouston Can you re-submit these IODs and use the new feature to “Add a Station” ?

#5

Yes, will do (a little bit later tonight).

#6

Done, it did not let me select my station on the second observation. Had to back out and do it a second time.